Cynthia Mamle Morrison, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Agona West, one of four seats recently declared vacant by the Speaker of Parliament, has complained about a supposed vote-buying scheme in her constituency.
Cynthia Mamle Morrison, in an interview aired on Metro TV on Thursday, October 24, 2024, indicated that her constituents have been transferring their votes to the neighbouring Effutu Constituency.
According to her, she has been told that her constituents are leaving to go and vote in Effutu because the MP for the constituency, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, who is also the leader of the NPP caucus in Parliament, has been offering them GH¢1000.
The embattled legislator made these accusations while lamenting about the inadequate support her constituency receives from the government despite its size.
“Agona West has 31 electoral areas, Swedru has 16 electoral areas, Agona East has 15 electoral areas, Gomoa Central has 15 electoral areas. Afenyo-Markin (Effutu) has 18 electoral areas but Agona West (Cynthia Morrison) has 31.
“So, if you combine Agona East and Gomoa Central, the electoral areas in Agona West exceed that of the two. But they gave us the same amount of money in Parliament. If they give Agona West GH¢10, they also give Afenyo-Markin GH¢10, Queenstar Pokuah Sawyerr GH¢10. This makes it very difficult for me, when it comes to issues of money, more than the three of them,” she said in the Fante dialect.
Cynthia Morrison added, “So, Agona West must be divided. But, I’m going to say this on air, a huge number of our population when it is time for voting say Afenyo-Markin would give them GH¢1000 so they transfer their votes to Winneba.”
She indicated that the incident has reduced the population of her constituency, which makes it difficult for them to be given a district.
She urged the constituents who have transferred their votes to come back when the register is open so the exact population of her constituency would be known to allow for it to be divided into Agona West and Agona Central.
The Metro TV report indicated that the Effutu legislator has debunked the allegation, saying that all the MPs in the said constituencies held a meeting to stop voter transfers.
Watch her remarks in the video below:
Vote Buying: Cynthia Morrison accuses Afenyo-Markin of depleting votes #ElectionCentral #MetroNews pic.twitter.com/IJW6kZrR0h
— Metro TV Ghana (@metrotvgh) October 25, 2024
